Social Media - LIVE!

I'm on Twitter. And I enjoy reading news, what my friends are doing, ephemera, and also what people think about Kooza. I keep an eye on people coming to see the show as well as people who have already seen the show and sharing what they think. That's not a new concept. Businesses often look to Twitter to see what their customers are thinking and then use that information to their advantage, or not.

For me, I'm mostly just curious. But every once in a while, more often than I'd like I run across a tweet like this:

Off to Cirque de So Lame with my family despite a particular dislike of clowns.

Now right off the bat, he's knocking the Cirque company, eluding that he's probably just gonna have a bad time no matter what. But add to that, he mentions the clown thing. Any follower of my blog should know how I feel about clown haters. This one too. But I thought I'd let it go. Then, less than an hour later, he pushes further:

"Coulrophobia is abnormal or exaggerated fear of clowns." Bugger off! If there's anything that's abnormal or exaggerated, it's a clown.

Okay, so the guy is starting to have an annoyingly good time with his clown-bashing venom, and does so by popping onto Wikipedia for some zinger fodder. I'm trying to keep my cool. A follower of his pipes in, somewhat ignorantly:

Last I checked, there aren't really clowns at Cirque du Soleil...

To which our first guy says:

 My ass there are no clowns at Cirque desolé!. It's like the friggin' Blaire Witch Project with grease paint.

And with that, I held my tongue no longer. During the show I wrote to him, knowing full well he'd read it at intermission:

"Blair Witch Project with grease paint"--Great line! Hope we didn't totally ruin your night. See you in your nightmares!

Intermission rolls around. This pops up:

"Hope we didn't totally ruin your night. See you in your nightmares! *<:o) /via @jimmyslo". From the clown. In the show. On stage!

And then three minutes later:

Totally p0wn3d — or should that be c70wn3d by @jimmyslo from somewhere in the tent about 2 minutes into intermission.

And then five minutes after that, directly to me:

Well played. Truly well played, my funny friend. How on earth did you even see my tweet? I'm not sure if I'm reassured or freaked.

Then Ron, my fellow clown chimed in to both of us:

Why don't you two just get a room? Geez.

To which I respond to both of them:

Well I DO know where he's sitting. Hint: Look behind you!

Quoth the guy:

aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

And then even his wife got in on the action:

This is his wife and I SO want to tell you where we're sitting.

Despite my encouragement, she didn't. At the end of the show, our guy gives his final thoughts:

I had a great time, guys, and should be able to sleep with the lights off in a few weeks.

Mission accomplished? Have we won this guy over? By playing into his bullshit fear or hatred of clown, have I turned him around?

I'm mostly tickled by the idea of using Twitter as another performance layer. Meta-cyber-theatricality. Taking audience reactions, or even pre-actions, from the web and using them in the performance. At one point in the show when I'm screaming with fear, I screamed this guy's name, followed by "I'm...so...scared!!" ala Blair Witch Project.

It isn't even the first time this was done in Kooza. My former clown partner, Christian and I would scour through Twitter for just this kind of opportunity. It not only gives us instant feedback on the show from the public, but we also get their preconceived notions and, when possible, we can use them as an added advantage for our control. It's like a performance within the performance JUST for them!

The evil clowns just got evil-er.